Miami Dolphins LB Lawrence Timmons breaks down how to tackle

Since Miami Dolphins linebacker Lawrence Timmons became a full-time starter in 2009, he has totaled 917 tackles, second in the NFL during that span. (Andres Leiva / The Palm Beach Post)

DAVIE — Lawrence Timmons has tackled a man 976 times since he entered the NFL.

“Us old guys,” Timmons said Tuesday, “we’ve got quite a few.”

The Miami Dolphins linebacker has 24 tackles in four games this season and because it seems like he’s always so well positioned, so technically sound, so aggressive and accurate, The Daily Dolphin wanted to ask how he does it so well.

As an example of his tackling prowess, we showed four other Dolphins linebackers video of Timmons’ violent takedown of Matt Forte on a screen pass in Sunday’s game.

“Textbook,” linebacker Neville Hewitt said.

“That’s how you do it right there,” linebacker Chase Allen said.

As part of this week’s The Tape Don’t Lie, we also tweeted a video showing Timmons’ tackle of Forte, along with the caption, “How to tackle, by Lawrence Timmons.”

In less than 24 hours, more than 800 people had liked the video and more than 300 had re-tweeted it.

And so here, in his own words, Timmons, 31, explains how he tackles, why he loves tackling, and how he learned to tackle like he does:

At Florida State, I was taught the Mickey Andrews drill, the angling tackle drill. He was the defensive coordinator. Keep your head up, lower your target and most of the time you just shoot for the torso area and you just run through the tackle.

You have to see what you’re tackling. A lot of guys just duck their heads. There is an art to tackling. I like to get my head across and run through my target. Most of the time people say to do a double upper-cut when you tackle.

You’ve got to run through your tackle. A lot of people hit and stop their feet. You’ve got to keep running your feet. When you run your feet that’s when you get that extra momentum to run through the tackle. You feel me?

I don’t know how many tackles I have, but I know it’s up there. It’s hard to say what would be the best. To be the best, it would have to be like in a championship game or something. You know? I mean, I’ve done so many.

Tackling? It’s an attitude thing. You’re a linebacker and you’ve got to be the quarterback of the defense and also the most aggressive. You kind of have to be like a point guard. You’ve got to be a Russell Westbrook out there. You have to have that attitude. You know what I’m saying? Aggressive. Attitude. Like Russell Westbrook.